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social shopping

With the average person spending 1.5 hours a day on social media, shopping ads are gaining more prominence in the online era.

Studies have shown that 54% of millennials resort to social media to research products before making a purchase. A high proportion of these people also use their social platforms to browse new products. For the primary reason that people are opting to shop online as opposed to in-person, 40% of businesses are now utilising social media as a means to break through the noise in a competitive market and boost sales.

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“Social Media has grown in power and has changed the way services and products are advertised”

Shopping ads make it easier for consumers to discover, browse and purchase products and services from their device in a visual and immersive way. These adverts typically include a cover image or video followed by several product images. When someone clicks on this ad, they’ll land on your website.

People are spending far more time on visual platforms for inspiration from brands and their influencers. As a result, Instagram shopping is becoming a massive success when it comes to online advertising. Shopping ads have recently been launched on this platform which has over 85 million accounts tapping on a shopping post a month with the intention to learn more about the product. 36% of surveyed Instagram users state they enjoy going on the platform to shop their favourite brands as a hobby. With these statistics reflecting how people flock to the social platform to follow the brands they love and gain inspiration from beautiful images and videos, it is felt that Instagram shopping, through both the feed and the story feature, is going to become a more significant part of the user experience. Advertising your products through here can help your brand benefit from additional exposure to new followers and buyers.

Another platform on the rise is Pinterest, which is showing great promise for online shopping due to its visual appeal. In 2015, it started to offer a ‘buy’ button to pins, and in 2016, a shopping cart was added – giving consumers the option to add multiple items from different suppliers at once.

Furthermore, Facebook’s social commerce focus in recent years has also made it a heavy competitor against Amazon, Google Shopping and Etsy. Efforts have been directed primarily towards the Marketplace feature which, as of 2018, has had over 800 million people browsing, selling, and buying products. This feature is known for its well-organised layout that allows people to search for products by filtering category, price and location, which in turn makes the discovery of products easy and selling them even quicker.

A notable advantage of selling products on social media is that, with the vast amount of consumer data available, you can effectively target and surface products to the appropriate people so that they quickly convert into buying customers. Campaigns can be created that target people based on their previous viewing history and buying behaviours, ensuring that people are only exposed to products they are interested in.

It is because of this high-end targeting that consumers perceive social media content as more authentic than other means of promotion. Furthermore, the numerous ways of compelling a person into buying a product can be very easily achieved in this domain. This can be done through concise hashtags, emotive brand stories and influencer content, or by more visual means such as eye-gripping photo carousels and videos.

When done right, these marketing techniques can truly connect your brand with the right audience.

Fortunately, our experienced Social Media account managers here in Leeds have the creative ability to bring your brand to life via these online methods.